Sole Survivor
by Oathkeeper93
Summary: The story of former Navy SEAL Robert Lockwood, a lone survivor living in Virginia. For three years Lockwood has been alone, facing the horrors of the dead world around him. He is haunted by his past, after watching his family and fellow SEALs die, can he survive the coming storm or will his personal demons get the best of him? Summary sucks, promise the story will be good though.
1. One

One

_In the year 2009 Dr. Alice Krippen developed a vaccine. Its purpose was to cure cancer; however it turned out to be humanity's very undoing. The drug cured 10,009 people of various types of cancer; however it also transformed them into nocturnal bloodthirsty monstrosities. The Krippen Virus or KV as it was called spread throughout the world via bacteria strains and airborne toxicity; it devastated the Earth and its global populace. The world has been depleted of life; all that remains is the ruins of once proud but now fallen civilizations. What once was called humanity roams the night devouring any source of life in its path. _

_There are a handful of lone survivors scattered around the globe, people who were somehow immune to the hellish plague. These individuals have inherited a curse, the curse of having to survive and face the darkness alone. There are some who find comfort in believing that God is the master of their fate and believe faith in Him will get them through their plight. Others find themselves alone and without hope. Nevertheless I am one of those survivors; my name is Robert Lockwood I am a former Navy SEAL amongst the ruins of Virginia. This is my story._

October 13th 2012 3:45 p.m.

I ran up the stairs of the Lindale Apartment Complex. I reached the second floor. Light from the windows on in the hallway flooded the stairwell almost instantly. I shut off the flashlight was secured to my FN P90 Sub machine gun. I then aimed the gun to the left then to the right none of those creatures in sight. I had to watch out the infected hid themselves in the shadows they had better sight in the dark as well. A few times they had sprung out at me like a jack in a box. I walked into the second floor hallway.

"_No surprise greeters waiting for me? There's a surprise," _I thought.

I walked up to the first apartment. The number on the door read "201". I busted the door open with the butt of my P90. I took two steps in rapidly aiming my gun in all directions ready for anything. No immediate hostiles in the immediate vicinity. Normally one of my squad mates would be reporting this to me and then give the green light for me and the rest of the squad to enter. Then I'd tell them to spread out and do some recon, secure the area or some other order. But since the Navy SEALs do not exist anymore and my SEAL team was killed in a skirmish with infected hostiles, I guess I'm not really the captain of anything or anyone anymore. I looked around at an empty, sunlit apartment.

"_Guess I'd better get started," _I thought.

I walked into the living room. The room seemed like an ordinary living room: large blue velvet sofa in the center of the room, big screen TV with a DVD player sitting on top next to an X-box. A stereo with two large speakers in the corner a Christmas tree in the other corner needless to say the world seemed to end during December 2009. Once upon a time I would take these electronics gladly, now they are unimportant to me. The sound of my military issue boots thudding on the tile floor could be heard as I walked into the kitchen, I began a search of the cupboards.

One cupboard held cups and mugs while another held plates and bowls. Another held canned and boxed foods; I ransacked the cup bored scoring cans of chicken noodle soup and two boxes of macaroni and cheese. I then realized I'd need something more to carry the rest of the stuff. I went out of the apartment and back to the stairwell and pulled out a shopping cart I had parked there and pulled it back to the apartment. I put the soup and macaroni in the cart I also got a few boxes of Hamburger Helper and Top Ramen. I took any other dry foods I could find. I opened the fridge and took out the unopened bottles of water there was not much else I could take.

I looked at my watch. 3:55 p.m. It would be dark soon. _"I had better get back to the bunker," _I thought.

I pushed the shopping cart out of the apartment. I closed the door and tied a red ribbon to the door marking that I left off at this apartment, after that I made my way back down the stairs. I walked out of the lobby to the parking lot and my waiting F-150 pickup truck. There was already another shopping cart next to the truck; I started to move the stuff out of the shopping cart and into the back of the truck. Once done with that I lifted the two shopping carts into the truck bed. I climbed into the truck, started it and drove out of the parking lot of the Greendale Apartment complex parking lot. I drove down Seventh Street, turned on Sixth and drove onto Campus. It was a straight street from here, I continued driving at full speed ignoring the speed limit signs on the side of the road. The speed limit signs soon turned to signs that said "Restricted Area and Authorized Military Personal Only" the city turned to forest. Secluded in the forest was the military bunker known as _Last Resort_.

The _Last Resort _was situated at the center of the forest just off a dirt road; it was lined with thirty foot brick walls lined with electrified fence; the bunker itself went eight levels down into the ground. Three levels above the ground and five underground. The only entrance into the courtyard was an automated gate that was accessible by remote, inside the courtyard was a vast parking lot filled with military and civilian vehicles, mostly hum vees and jeeps; there were five tanks as well. Behind the bunker was a vast field where crops, fruits and vegetables were growing. There was a single flag pole and waving at the top was the Stars and Stripes.

I drove through the entry gate and into the parking lot; the entry gate closed automatically after two minutes. After parking I exited the truck, I pulled out both grocery carts from the truck bed one by one. I opened the back door and started to load the spoils from the apartments that I had raided today into both carts. Once everything was unloaded I closed the truck door. I pulled both carts to the bunker entrance. I pressed my thumb to the biometric security pad and the door opened. I pushed one cart inside using it as a doorstop. Still outside I could see the sun begin to set behind me. There was still a lot of light and I could still feel warmth on my back through my camouflage fatigues. I pushed the other cart towards the flag pole, once there I undid the knot on the ropes holding the flag up. I started to pull the ropes down until the flag was lowered where I was standing.

I unhooked the American flag and began to fold it. Although the time honored tradition of raising the flag in the morning, lowering it in the evening, and folding it up right seemed to be gone and almost without meaning anymore; to me it was not gone and it would never be meaningless. It was an honorable tradition and I respected it so much that I continued to do it every day. Traditions like this also reminded me that I was once a part of something honorable I was once a U.S. Navy SEAL. Honor, courage, and commitment were my principles. Once I had finished folding the flag I put it in the cart and made my way back to the bunker entrance.

Once inside I locked the door behind me. I put the flag on a nearby table. I walked to the bunker security console. I pressed one button and brought up a schematic of the _Last Resort_. From there I could control the bunker's security systems. I closed and locked the parking lot gate. To the side of on the security console there was a list of security measures called the _Omega Protocol_ that I could arm if needed. The list looked like this:

**Measure****Status**

Electric Fence Disarmed

UV Lamps Disarmed

Automatic Turrets Disarmed

Flame Thrower Disarmed

C4 and Claymores Disarmed

Security Cameras On

I decided against arming any of the security systems. None of the infected had discovered I was there and they never really came towards the bunker's fence. Besides that arming any of these measures, and leaving them on all night, would seriously drain the bunker's power supply. I turned and started to push the shopping cart full of supplies to the pantry, I went down the West corridor leading into the Mess Hall. The Mess was a wide room; the walls and ceiling were made of chrome steel. I remember when I would walk in and find my fellow SEALs sitting in here eating a meal. They would be talking and laughing with one another; now the room was dead silent, plastic coverings on top of the tables and chairs. I pushed the cart into the food storage area, there a massive pantry was located, and it was a vast storage chamber where I put all the dry goods and foods. I unloaded the cart putting everything in its appropriate place, once finished I grabbed a package of beef jerky, and pushed the cart out. With the fresh lettuce I had picked from my garden in the back of the bunker. I made myself a Caesar salad for dinner, and had a ham sandwich as well.

Two hours after I had finished my dinner, I sat in my private quarters on the third level which consisted of a king size bed, a restroom and shower along with a closet. I had been an officer and rank had come with privileges; they had been my quarters when I was stationed at the_ Last Resort_ they had been a second home to me and Helen, my late wife. Helen did not like living in the bunker, but after our house was deemed an infected area, we really had no choice.

My wife had been a virologist for the Department of Defense; in the months during the outbreak she was asked by the President to help create an antidote to combat the KV infection; her and her team tried several vaccines and failed miserably. When my wife was here she spent most of her time in the chapel, our Chaplain Capt. Nathan Carter was her cousin, and the two would sit in the chapel and pray for long hours. My wife and son had been Christians, Helen tried to talk to me about God and Jesus, but I did not understand. I believed in the existence of God, his existence seemed much more logical than Evolution or the Big Bang theory or any of the other theories my high school science teachers tried to indoctrinate on me; but I did not have much faith in him. I simply just believed the idea that some sort of cosmic or supernatural being was responsible for everything, however with the current situation; my beliefs were the last thing on my mind.

Helen is gone now so is my son Jake, yet I stared at the picture of them on my desk, sometimes I imagine what things would be like if I still had them with me. Helen was a very beautiful woman who had stood about five foot nine, very slender, she had been a brunette, with green eyes, she had been born in Texas but she had been sent to live in Virginia, with her aunt and uncle after her parents died in a fire; she was only five years old. Jake had only been five feet tall, he had long brown hair and blue eyes. Having the military father and intellectual mother Jake was trained early on, at five years old Jake had a yellow belt in karate was an adept sharpshooter, he could solve long division problems in his head and was already reading adult novels like "Of Mice and Men" and "To Kill a Mocking Bird."

Jake was only twelve when he died during the outbreak, he had been infected but not fully. He became sick with something the CDC had dubbed the "Krippen Flu" or "KF" it was an advanced case of the KF which was a by-product of the outbreak, besides strep throat and very high fever, KF symptoms included blindness, extreme redness of the eyes and complete loss of hearing.

Depending upon how advanced the case or how a person's body could tackle the symptoms decided their survival rate. Some doctors with the CDC theorized that some patients infected with the KF could possibly live for almost four years while suffering KF symptoms, but not one person infected lived that long. Unfortunately in Jake's case he only lasted for three days, the symptoms came at him fast and furious. He died within the first week of the outbreak, when the hospitals were swamped with patients, Helen had taken it upon herself to treat him in our home, and she being the professional doctor sterilized his bedroom and turned it into a patient's room. She tried everything for three days she went without sleep, in the end however she failed to save him, she went into a deep depression; she nearly tore the house down, having been infuriated when she heard the CDC announce over the morning news that they had developed a cure for KF.

Helen died on October 4th 2010 she hung herself, when she found out she was infected with KV. She left me a note explaining her reasons for suicide. In the note she explained that she was infected and feared she would turn into one of those creatures, and she would hurt me, "the last thing I would ever want to do," she had written in the letter. However it was strange to me that she would take her own life in such a manner. Near the end she had been very hopeful that she and her fellow colleagues were close to discovering a cure, she was even talking to me about having another kid. The factors surrounding her suicide confused me greatly. Other factors included the assassination of Dr. Arvin White, a brilliant chemist who was a member of Helen's team. White had been a snake of a man, he had lusted after Helen, but I had considered him a friend. My SEAL team and I were ordered to escort him to a different testing facility, when the hummer he was in was blown up; his death was a mystery.

I had met Helen in high school, I was the jock, and NJROTC student commanding officer, Helen was the science nerd who had no social life, just the other nerds who followed her every word; plus nobody really gave her a chance. Rumor had it that she had a crush on me; I acted on this rumor and finally asked her out to the Homecoming dance. She and I ended up dating all through high school, when we graduated I had just secured myself a scholarship to the Naval Academy, she had gotten a scholarship for John Hopkins University. Four years later after my time at the Naval Academy was done I proposed to her, we were engaged shortly before I left for my SEAL training. After my SEAL training we tied the knot and had an eight week honeymoon, the honeymoon ended just on the eve of my first deployment. I left for Iraq and served two tours there and two tours in Afghanistan, our son Jake was born after my first tour. Helen graduated from John Hopkins and accepted a job from the Defense Department and CDC. The rest was history.

An explosion outside far away in the city interrupted my thoughts. I sat up in my chair. Probably one of the booby traps I had set all over the city, two more explosions were heard. I got up from my chair and walked down the hall past empty rooms and took a right towards the service elevator. I pushed the button and the double doors slid open. The bunker had a stairway system but I preferred to take the elevator to the Observation Deck, I pushed the up button and doors slid closed. I stood at the center of the lift, as the elevator started ascending. The walls of the elevator were made of steel just like the rest of the bunker; there was no elevator music just the dinging sound whenever the elevator was passing a floor; the elevator was also dimly lit. Helen did not like that, standing in the elevator without music and pleasant lighting she said it made her feel claustrophobic; she was never without her I-Pod.

The Bunker had eight levels in all I started off from the third; the doors slid open on the first floor. I walked out, and turned left to the Observation deck. I opened the hatch and stepped in there was a leather couch I had put there, three telescopes and a main Para scope was at the center of the deck. Clear windows surrounded the deck; there was a function to tint them so no one could see through them. I went to the security console and untinted the windows. I looked in the distance toward the city, night had fallen a long time ago, and it was about seven thirty. I could see flames in the distance two small fires in the middle of the city.

"_That's around the abandoned police station and the Gypsy Tea Room,"_ I thought.

I took the Para scope and looked through it, I could see the flames and I could see… them. The remnants of humanity, they were jumping around, others who had gotten caught in the flames were running, inflamed and screaming. I could barely hear their screams, the walls and glass of the bunker were sound proofed. I took my eyes off out of the Para scope and looked at the flames from a distance. The two inflamed buildings would not be burning for long. I had rigged automatic sensors on nearby building that would activate at two hundred different hoses that would shoot water at the building and put out the fire. Once the outbreak started, the Navy taught us Seals how to set up these strange contraptions, the President had called on because we were the "last hope."

I had conducted this operation several times. I sat down on the leather sofa on the deck, for three years I had rigged buildings to blow in an attempt to kill the infected beasts. I hated the remnants of humanity with a passion. Over the years I had strangely enjoyed killing them. I heard crashes in the distance; they probably triggered my car snares. All over the city I had rigged abandoned cars on suspension cables that would crash down on the infected when they hit the trip wire. It worked perfectly because the bastards ran around the city like rats in the sewers with no sense of direction.

I shook my head. "Three years I've been killing them. The freaks," I looked down at the floor, I started laughing out loud for no reason. "What's the use?" I asked myself in between my laughter. "They're like cockroaches Robert, why do you even try?" I looked up. "NO!" I yelled. "I can't let this happen; I can't let them invade my territory… I can still fix this," I said.

The time on my watch turned to 8:00 p.m. I still sat on the sofa watching the burning buildings, I could see the automatic sprinkler system go off and spray the buildings. I slowly began to drift off to sleep. "I can still fix this," I said to myself as I finally succumbed to sleep.

**Author's Note:** **Well there's the first chapter, please read and review. This story takes place in the same universe as the 2007 "I Am Legend" did, however it is also a loosely based on Richard Matheson's original novel; sort of like a modern take. I Will upload the second chapter ASAP.**


	2. Two

Two

December 2nd 2009, Naval Station, Norfolk, Virginia.

The air was frigid and light snow fell as I walked down the ramp leading off the USS Matheson. I had on my officer's dress uniform underneath my U.S. Navy issue pea coat; the cold did not bother me I was trained to deal with the elements. In front of me behind a fence were a thousand civilians, families of sailors that were returning from the Korean Peninsula. I made it off the ramp and walked to the entrance of the fence, I was suddenly hit by a human cannonball. My son Jake ran towards me and embraced me in a tight hug, snow covered his blonde hair and red winter jacket.

"What's this? I thought flying monkeys only existed in _The Wizard of Oz," _I said as I lifted Jake into my arms and sat him on my arm.

"I'm not flying monkey, I'm a tomahawk missile!" he yelled.

"Is that so?" I asked.

"More like the Energizer Bunny if you ask me," said a female voice.

I turned and saw her, my beautiful wife, Helen wore a black winter coat and snow pants with black leather boots; her silky, soft brown hair was down. I walked towards her and pulled her into a kiss, and took in her scent, simple lavender perfume and vanilla shampoo in her hair. I loved that scent on her and she knew it.

"Welcome back darling," Helen said as she smiled at me.

"How are you?" I asked.

Helen put her hand on my cheek. "Well it's turning out to be a pretty good day so far." Helen took my hand, "Let's go," she said with a smile.

Helen led me to her candy-apple red BMW, I put Jake down and he climbed into the back seat and settled in after shutting the door. I opened the door for Helen, like the gentleman I was and then got into the passenger side seat and shut the door. Helen drove me to Mr. Ed's a fifties style restaurant that I loved; She and I had been eating out there since we had dated through high school. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger and French fries, I had not had an American cheeseburger for almost seven months; as usual as I came back from a tour, Helen refused to let me pay and paid for my meal. Interestingly Helen was a health nut yet she never disagreed with me eating food like this. As Jake ate his food, Helen and I talked, I asked her how things had been stateside.

"Absolutely boring without you," Helen grinned. "Oh I've been busy with this new Krippen vaccine gone out of control. It was incredible, Alice Krippen cured cancer. Brain cancer, pancreatic, lungs, leukemia; you name it. Then all of a sudden the cancer came back."

"Just how did this become a Defense Department matter?" I asked.

"I don't know I just heard that the DOD was taking over the investigation and apparently Dr. Krippen was given Secret Service protection as she is creating a counter-antidote to her original formula. People have already died due to the vaccine; however I'm hearing some strange rumors that…" Helen's voice trailed off. She quickly looked at Jake who was slurping his milk shake. Helen looked back at me, "I'll tell you about it later."

Home, 8:30 pm.

Back in my own bedroom, I laid down on our king size bed the memory foam conforming to my back which ached from long hours of combat missions in Afghanistan. Feeling comfortable in my Navy sweats and a long sleeve flannel shirt, I watched the news which was currently reporting on the failed Krippen vaccine and how many people Alice Krippen had 'murdered'. The news castor had not said this directly but indirectly, in the recent months the Mainstream media had gone out of its way to demonize the good doctor; without even listening to her side of the story. Alice Krippen had been a major inspiration for Helen, to go into the field of virology, one of her vaccines had actually saved Jake's life; I was very disappointed to see Alice Krippen being treated this way.

Suddenly the Television was turned off, I forgot about the news I had just heard. Helen entered the room wearing a pink velvet robe; she placed the remote on top the table underneath the TV. She turned and gave me a very seductive look, I remembered in high school she had just been the awkward but cute nerd; she was sexy underneath those nerdy glasses. Helen untied her robe, revealing a silk black negligee; she tossed her robe on a nearby chair and climbed into bed. She started to crawl towards me, batting her eyelashes at me; being a nerd she was awkward at flirting but she still got my attention

"Captain Robert Lockwood… you've been away keeping our country safe. A very noble deed that has me turned on." Helen now was on top of me her lips inches away from mine. "I've been very lonely lately, waiting for you. And now that you're back, I can hardly keep my hands to myself. Jake is spending the night at a friend's house; we have the night all to ourselves, my sweet." Helen leaned down and kissed me.

I wrapped my arms around her and returned the kiss, it had felt like years since she and been alone with one another; as it always did after I came back from a tour.

Two hours later, I was in the kitchen wearing only my sweat pants as I rustled around in the fridge. I finally found what I was looking for a bottle of Martinelli's Apple Cider and giant Belgian Chocolate bar; this was Helen's and my guilty pleasure. We did not drink alcohol and after Helen showed me what kidneys look like after years of alcohol abuse; I simply had no wish to drink it either. I put the bottle and chocolate down on the counter and opened the cupboard, just as I pulled out two wine glasses the doorbell rang. _"At this hour who could that be?"_ I thought to myself as I put the glasses down on the counter and went to go answer the door. As I walked through the living room I heard an assortment of noises coming from outside, most of the sounds were unusual for this hour and this neighborhood. Usually you would hear dogs barking, an occasional car passing by, but I could hear yelling, glass breaking and some very unusual growling; it did not sound like it was coming from a TV that had the volume all the way up either.

"Honey, did you hear that? I thought I heard someone screaming a couple houses down," Helen said as she came down stairs; re-dressed in her negligee and robe.

I looked through the looking glass inside my front door; through the outside screen I saw my friend and neighbor Noah Johnson. Johnson lived three blocks away from me, my son Jake and his son Matthew were best friends. Noah looked as if he had just gotten up from a not so pleasant nap, his long hair was uncombed; he had a strange look of urgency on his face. I opened the door and the screen to find not just Noah but Jake standing at his side. My son did not look very well.

"I am very sorry to wake you at this hour Robert, but Jake is sick and I thought the best thing to do was to bring him home," Noah said in an urgent tone.

Helen rushed to my side. "Come on Jake, let's get you inside," Helen said pulling Jake by the hand. She looked at Noah. "Thank you for bringing him home Noah."

"I'm sorry I threw up in your wife's rose bush Mr. Johnson," Jake apologized in a weak tone.

"It's alright Jake, nothing a good hose down won't fix, hope you feel better son," replied Noah. Noah shook my hand. "Well I've got to get going the wife will be worried. Good to have you back home Robert." With that Noah Johnson turned and left.

"Goodnight," I called out before closing both doors and locking them.

"Mom I feel like I'm going to throw up again," Jake whined.

"Ok hold on honey, oh your forehead is very warm." Helen led Jake towards the downstairs bathroom. Helen pulled her cell phone out of her robe pocket and pressed a speed dial button and put the phone to her ear. "Hello, yes this Dr. Helen Lockwood, I would like to make an appointment for my son Jake."

Suddenly I heard a terrible growl and Noah Johnson screaming, I pulled aside the curtains on the window and saw a bloodied Noah Johnson being devoured by a large dog. This dog was had gray skin, and it was hairless. The creature's eyes were a dull maroon color as it lifted its head from Noah Johnson's bloody throat, droll and blood dripped from the dog's mouth. I felt a tingle down my spine as the dog turned and looked at me through the window; I saw a look in the animal's eyes. The dog had this wild untamed look in its eyes, the look of a killer; I could tell the animal was no longer a loving pooch. The dog snarled as it ran towards the window, it jumped, fangs and claws barred ready to crash through the window. The animal crashed through the window, shattered glass immediately littered the floor.

I turned around swiftly; the small coffee table behind me had a Glock taped to the bottom, I reached under and started to pry it from under. I heard two noises out of my right ear, the first was Helen slamming the bathroom door and locking it; the second was the snarl of the wild dog as it shook its head. Just in time I pried the handgun from underneath the table, the tape was still on it but I did not care at the moment. I whirled around to meet the dog lunging right at me; I instinctively rushed forward, grabbing the dog by its arms and threw it down on the ground. Before the creature could get back up, I aimed my Glock and fired at the dog's leg, the creature yelped in pain. Still it snarled and tried to claw at me with its unusually jagged nails; I aimed my Glock and shot the dog in the head. The dog convulsed unnaturally before it stopped moving quickly. I heard the bathroom door unlock and Helen exited, she told Jake to stay in the bathroom and walked towards me; despite the fact she was wearing slippers she still stepped over the shattered glass.

"Are you alright?" Helen asked me in a nervous tone.

"I'm fine," I replied in flat but reassuring tone.

"Robert what's happening?" Helen asked as she wrapped her arms around me.

"I don't know," I replied as I stared down at the dead dog on the floor.

12:34 am December 3rd 2009

While Helen tended to Jake, I rolled up the dead dog using the living room carpet and threw it in the our trash barrel; I knew the trash collectors were coming that morning. After that I headed to Home Depot, which was a disaster. People were running in and out and looting everything to chainsaws to wooden boards; I was lucky enough the right sized boards so I could board up the window. As I stood in line to pay for the boards the elderly clerk looked nervously at the people who gallivanted out of the store, running over security guards as they ran. I payed and left. When I returned I found Helen sitting on the couch in the living, she had been sitting on the couch shotgun in hand and watching to make sure no one took advantage of the broken window. As soon as I returned she put the shotgun down and headed upstairs, I quickly began to nail down the boards over the broken window. Once finished I noticed I stunk from picking up the dead dog and hauling him to the garbage can so I set off to take a shower.

1:30 am

When I got out of the shower, I turned on CNN just to hear the President declare a state of emergency; a CDC spokesman was talking about a new epidemic taking the nation by surprise. Hospitals nationwide were overrun with patients infected with the Krippen Virus or KV as they dubbed it. After declaring an official state of emergency, the President gave an address saying he would do everything in his power to help the nation overcome this new crisis. Translation: "I actually have no idea what I'm talking about. I'm just reading lines off my trusty teleprompter at the back of the room." Then CNN came to the Three Stooges in CDC uniforms talking all kinds of scientific jargon, the average American would never be able to understand. Since my wife was scientist herself and had helped me pass my science classes, I understood most of what they were talking about.

This new "Krippen Virus" was the outcome of the failed Krippen Vaccine; recently doctors who had been monitoring the patient who had been recipients of the vaccine had seen amazing results at first. In a bizarre but not unseen turn of events the cancer had returned, however a myriad of other symptoms had followed. These symptoms included: fevers, blindness, unusual, extreme redness of the eyes, and other unexplainable symptoms. Doctors coined this as the "Krippen flu," as at least half of the 10,009 recipients of the Krippen Vaccine had died. The next report was very shocking indeed; apparently some of the patients had turned into what the reporter could only describe as "savage." They showed images of patients in cells made of bullet-proof glass; these patients were acting erectly; lashing out at people.

The patients were acting like the dog that had jumped through my living room window and attacked me last night. Skin deathly pale, eyes dark maroon with all sense of humanity and decent behavior gone. Looking into the eyes of the patients on the TV, all I saw was savagery and unfounded anger. They were not human anymore, that was for sure. The report ended with the CNN reporter blaming Alice Krippen for this and going out of his way to demonize Krippen; keeping it classy as always CNN. I turned off the TV as the home phone rang. I picked it up to hear the words of my best friend and fellow SEAL Ben Cortman on the other line.

"Hey Rob, the Admiral has ordered us to report in, apparently we have to be stuck in the middle of this mess."

"Alright, where do we report to?" I asked.

"Some old government bunker called the _Last Resort_ I used to hear government conspiracy whack jobs talk about all the time. I have the directions, listen can I get a ride with you? My car broke down," Ben replied.

"Sure, I'll see soon," I replied.

"Be there at 0830," he replied the phone clicked as he hung up.

Soon after I received a phone call from Admiral Hargrove the commanding officer of our SEAL team confirming Ben's news; I was ordered to wear my service dress uniform because the Secretary of Defense and Chief of Naval Operations were going to be there. After dressing in my uniform, I walked into Jake's room, due to the overcrowded hospitals; Helen had not been able to get Jake into one to be seen. I found Helen sitting on the floor by Jake's bed hugging her knees with her robe wrapped around her like a cocoon; she was sobbing as Jake lay on the bed staring up at the ceiling, his skin was white as paper. If it had not been for Jake's chest rising and falling, I would have thought he was dead. Helen looked up at me through her tears, her eyes were bloodshot, and she had stayed up present at Jake's side doing what she could since the hospitals had turned Jake down due to overcrowding.

"I don't know what to do, he's gone blind." Helen sobbed. "If it were normal I'd know what to do, this is completely alien to me." Helen stood up as she seemed to have just noticed me dressed in my uniform. "Oh no Robby, not in this hysteria," she looked at me with an expression that was in between sadness and nervousness.

"I'm sorry Helly," I said using my nickname for her. "My team and I have been ordered to report in, for what I don't know."

"Ok," Helen looked at me and then at Jake, then back at me. "At least let me make you something to eat before you go," she said wiping her tears. Helen slipped past me and walked downstairs to the kitchen.

I walked towards my son who still lay sleeping in his bed, I hated to see him like this, and beads of sweat poured down his forehead from the fever he had. I leaned down and kissed him on the cheek, this inevitably woke him up.

"Dad, I can't see but I know that's you," Jake said. "You're wearing the shampoo mommy likes; she let me use it once when you were gone."

I knelt down beside the bed. "Jake, buddy listen I have to go away right now, they called me because there's some… Really bad things going on, a lot of people are in trouble and they need my help. I want you to stay in bed and listen to your mother, and when you get better we'll go to lake and go fishing."

"You promise?" Jake asked weakly looking in my general direction.

"I promise buddy," I said standing up. So many times I had said 'I promise' to my son and I had fulfilled every promise I made. Despite the fact that sometimes those promises had to wait until after a sudden deployment; hopefully I could make good on this one real soon. I kissed my son on the cheek once again and wished him goodbye before leaving the room.

As I came down the stairs the delightful smell of food cooking, the doorbell rang simultaneously the phone rang; I heard Helen pick it up. I answered the door to find my good friend and fellow SEAL Captain Benjamin Cortman stood there in the doorway. I shook hands with Ben and let him in, Ben and I had been friends since our days at the Academy, he and I had fought together in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, and Columbia. Together we had faced down dagger stares from the North Korean soldiers at the DMZ between South and North Koreas, he helped me when I was wounded, and I helped him likewise.

"Oh boy that smells good, whoa what happened here?" Ben's mind when from the food cooking to the boarded up window.

"We were attacked last night," I said.

"Yeah you're not the only one; my next door neighbor was attacked as well. The whole neighborhood seems to have gone crazy," Ben replied.

Helen came in with two wrapped breakfast burritos and handed them to me and Ben. "Heard you come in, thought it was indecent to send you away without food. Lily called and told me what happened."

"Yeah, she had to go out and pick up a couple more shifts at the hospital. Thanks I appreciate it," replied Ben.

Helen turned to me, still holding my hand. "That was the DOD on the phone; they requested I report to my lab ASAP. They told me to bring Jake, they'd clear a room for him and he can get some medicine."

"Good, alright them you two travel safely, I love you." I said as I leaned down and kissed her. Helen worked in a government laboratory just outside of Norfolk.

"I love you too." She then addressed both me and Ben "You two watch each other's backs it's a jungle out there right now," Helen said, she turned and walked back upstairs.

Ben and I exited my house putting our combination caps on as we stepped outside; I closed the door and locked it. The sky was a dark overcast as I climbed into my Ram 1500 and Ben climbed in the passenger side. I turned the ignition and we started down the road as Ben gave the directions to this "_Last Resort."_

"So what exactly happened?" Ben asked. "Turn left after the intersection here." It was not hard to follow Ben's instructions as the streets were almost empty this morning.

I related to him the story about the how the dog had killed Noah Webster and then jumped through the window and attacked me and how I killed it. "I can't explain it, the dog was just feral," I said.

"You're not the only one my neighbor was mauled by his wife last night," Ben said. "She looked just like those things they showed on CNN this morning."

"What is happening?" I asked him.

"I don't know."

We stopped at a red light, an old man obviously drunk stood at the corner waiting to cross. Two others, a young man and a young woman stood with him; they too appeared to be in a drunken stupor. The light turned green and I began to drive forward, just as I pushed my foot down on the gas pedal these three drunks started to cross. I honked my horn and they stopped, I proceeded as did the three drunks, I stopped and honked my horn. Ben opened the window and spoke to the three drunks.

"Hey it's our turn to go, please wait your turn."

Suddenly the drunken man looked up his skin deathly pale, his eye dark maroon; he growled and stretched forth his hands towards Ben. The two other drunks followed suit. Ben quickly closed the window and I sped forward away from the three freaks that ran after us at incredible speed. The three then saw another car, Ben and I watched from the rear view mirror in horror. The three virus infected humans jumped on top of the second car and were trying to break in. The driver lost control and crashed into a nearby clothing store.

"What the hell is going on?" Ben asked me.

"I'm as clueless as you are Bud," I replied.

_The Last Resort_ 4:12 am. October 14th 2012.

I awoke finding myself on the leather sofa I had fallen asleep on in the Observation Deck on the bunker. I sat up; through the windows I could see the building that had exploded last night had been put out by the automatic sprinklers I had set up. Gray smoke billowed up into the air; to the east I saw flickers of light, though the sun would not completely rise until six o' clock. I stood up and stretched; I walked to the elevator and began my journey back to the third floor. Once on the third floor I walked back to my room and entered the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. After drying my face, I put toothpaste on my toothbrush and began to brush my teeth.

I at least kept one healthy habit; the _Last Resort_ having been built during the Cold War when the government feared that its forces would be trapped under ground with no food and water had an underground aqueduct system. There was a river in the forest that connected with the ocean, and the government had built the aqueduct so the river water would flow into the system. The water would then travel through a state of the art purifier system and flow through the bunker's sinks, faucets and shower heads; it gave the _Last Resort_ a virtually unlimited supply of water. Still I only showered twice a week sometimes three times a week if I were in the mood. Of course no one had stopped to think, that if America and the Soviets had launched nuclear missiles at one another that the world's oceans and other major bodies of water would have become too toxic to drink. Nope apparently that water purifier could do wonders beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

I finished brushing my teeth and washed my mouth out. I then headed into the entry chamber of the _Last Resort_ once there I walked to the table that was by the exit; I retrieved the folded American flag. As I exited the bunker, I moved one of the nearby shopping carts and used to hold the entry door open as I ventured outside. The air was cool, Fall was coming as I looked up at the dark blue morning sky I could tell it would be overcast today; I unfolded the American flag and began to hook it onto the flag pole in order to raise for that day. True no one was around to see the Old Glory waving atop the flag pole, just me and the walking dead outside the compound's walls; I still chose to honor the old traditions. I walked to the back of the compound, below a large white, almost transparent tarp I had fresh crops growing: corn, lettuce, tomatoes. There were five large trees in back which were growing apples, lemons, oranges, grapefruits and pomegranates. There was a valve connected to a hose that was connected to the bunker, I turned the valve counter-clockwise and small sprinklers located at the tops of the poles holding the tarp up started to spray the crops.

After about fifteen minutes of letting the sprinklers water the crops, I turned them off and returned to the bunker; closing the door behind me. After taking an hour run on the treadmill, doing some pushups and sit-ups and eating a breakfast that consisted of oatmeal, toast with orange juice and coffee; I was ready to go out for the day. I dressed back into my fatigues, outfitted myself with the advanced hemocyte combat vest the Defense Department had issued all military forces in the country. The new vest was not only bullet proof but was so thick it would also prevent infected hostels from tearing through it and scratching you in the chest; the vest was light and maneuverable despite being so thick. However it was just as useless as if you were not wearing any protection at all, the infected hostels had proven to be too agile and swift and could catch any soldier off guard. I also took an FN P90 submachine gun and an Ares "Shrike" from the armory as well as a Desert Eagle hand gun, combat knife and a sniper rifle; including extra ammunition. After loading these weapons in a humvee that I was going to take today, I returned to the Mess Hall and took four bottles of water and a bag of beef jerky and brought them back to the humvee.

It was around six o' clock when I left the _Last Resort_; I donned my aviator shades as I started the humvee and exited the automated gate that closed once I had driven out. I drove through the woods and past the checkpoint; usually I would see a pile of dead bodies there since there were hidden auto-turrets at the checkpoint. I had left them disabled last night. I drove to the center of town towards where I had seen the fire last night near the abandoned police station and gypsy tea room. I had a map sitting in front of me marked with "safe" streets, for three years I had been putting together very elaborate snares consisting of cord and abandoned cars or boats. I would position the cord like a tripwire so when the infected hostile would run into the cord it would bring down on the hostiles. I had turned half of Norfolk into a literal death trap: car snares, rigged to blow vehicles, auto turrets on nearly every street corner. I had enough sense however to leave a safe path for me to return to the _Last Resort _if I needed to.

I parked by the burned out building that was billowing light grey smoke, the water towers had done their work; the fire was completely put out. All that remained was a burned heap of rubble and at least twenty-six dead hemocytes. I sat back and sighed, I was not going to do this anymore, and it took too much time to set up this kind of trap. When I had my team with me and some Seabees we could complete it in four hours, it took me much longer on my own; I remember I had to spend the night in the hummer while the freaks galloped around outside in the night. Besides I had plenty of other building set to blow remotely if I needed an explosion I could have it. I drove away, back to the Greendale Apartment Complex; there were the grocery store across the street.

For my efforts I was rewarded with at least twenty-six bottles of water, two twelve packs of soda, an assortment of dry-food good such as: Hamburger Helper, canned soup, crackers, and chips and other goods which I stowed in the humvee. Other items I looted included a Nat King Cole CD which I did not have in my collection, some PowerAde and some bottles of beer. I personally was not a drinker but I knew alcohol had other uses. I closed the hummer's storage unit a slung my machinegun over my shoulder and walked to the grocery store across the street.

I grabbed an empty car that was in the street and pushed it into the store, in the first few weeks of the outbreak, just like an awful horror film. Panic broke out nationwide and induced a massive looting spree, people looted grocery stores, hardware stores, and department stores. It was like Black Friday but on a much larger scale, people were murdered for things others wanted; others were flattened in stampedes; it was so uncivilized, the National Guard and police department were overwhelmed. One situation in Los Angeles, California where the National Guard was guarding a military armory, a large crowd of people had lined up, because gun shops had been looted as well due to the fact that people wanted weapons to defend themselves from the infected. People were not going to the extreme and raiding police stations, and National Guard armories, military reserves etc.

An Army captain told the crowd to disperse however a leader amongst the crowd a man named Matthias Zerbe, a modern day hippie, war protestor and outspoken man of "peace and tolerance." No better than a self-righteous dilettante last seen in 1968 burning American flags and spitting on American troops returning from Vietnam; who had just until recently changed his opinion on Second Amendment Rights. Needless to say Matthias Zerbe had riled up the crowd and set the people's minds on obtaining weapons from that armory, it was mid-day not an infected hostile in sight. The military was given riot gear to deal with the hemocytes; they would end up using those shields when the crowd began to pelt them with rocks and other projectiles. An hour later the crowd charged forward, the soldiers were forced to fight off the protestors with their riot gear. One protestor was killed when Matthias pulled out a military style knife and stabbed him with it; he then stabbed a soldier in the ribs. One soldier, overwhelmed died from being clobbered by the protesters. After ten grueling minutes the LAPD arrived with reinforcements, Matthias escaped, in the end three civilians and four soldiers lay dead. Conflicting and mostly biased news reports of the incident painted the National Guard and LAPD in a very negative tone; Matthias Zerbe was romanticized as a "rebel hero."

The grocery store was dark, the only light shone in through the storefront windows; there was very little on the shelves in plain sight. I wheeled the cart to a nearby candy shelf, even the nasty candy was gone, and then I saw something yellow sticking out of the corner of the shelf. I pulled it out a pack of Juicy Fruit; such memories came into my head. Juicy Fruit was my favorite gum, Ben and I used to chew it after a successful mission it had been our "victory dance" since neither Ben or I smoked. I pulled open the pack and took a stick of gum as I unwrapped it I put the package in my pocket and put the stick n my mouth and began chewing the sweet gum; I put the wrapper in my pocket for when the piece of gum ran out of flavor. I started to recon of the store and I was surprised at what I found not four but five cases of water bottles remained in one of the shelves. More dry goods of course it was only a little, this store had been badly looted. There were no infected hostiles in the store, too many windows letting light so I had a rather uneventful search. In the end I had a car half-full of supplies which I brought back to the humvee. The gum had run out of flavor by then so spit it out into the wrapper and threw it in a nearby trashcan; I turned to my right an noticed an abandoned SUV.

I walked up to the SUV and found it to be open; I started to search through it, finding only one useful item, a flashlight. The rest was old fast-food and junk, I reached into the glove compartment and found an envelope with some pictures inside. I found out by the picture that this car had belonged to a young single mother and her baby, they were in the pictures; I sighed the pictures were of a happier time. I put the picture back and closed the SUV up. I was startled suddenly by a loud crash and the sound glass shattering, I whirled around to see a cloud of smoke about a yard away behind a building; it was where one of my car snares had been. What could have set it off?

I sprinted towards the crash site machinegun ready; I stopped at the corner of a building just in front of the crash. I slowly turned the corner aiming my machinegun at what probably was just an animal that had hot the tripwire; however what I would see next would surprise me out of my wits. I looked down upon a red-haired girl, she stared up at me her eyes wide with fear. I looked down at her with bewilderment, I blinked she was still there. Another survivor? Impossible.

**To Be Continued…**


End file.
